Conclusion
I am incredibly proud of my students this year. They came in as extremely capable, though disorganized, writers and thinkers and, as they proceeded through my series of scaffolded assignments, grew. This is as much because of me responding to their needs in crafting assignments as it is because of their thoughtfulness and diligent work ethics.
I chose these three students because they received a variety of grades on the initial thesis papers (Nicole received a low grade, Anastasia received a middling grade and Nem received a high grade as compared to the majority of the class) and because, in all three of them, I saw great drive and willingness to respond to my interventions. Nicole, Anastasia and Nem worked incredibly hard over the course of the year and, as a result, their grades on the final thesis paper improved (as compared to that on the initial thesis paper) by, respectively, 10, 13 and 8 points.
Not all of my students grew as much as the three detailed in this inquiry project. A few students actually received lower grades on their thesis papers on The Things They Carried than they did on their thesis papers on The Great Gatsby. Part of this is because my expectations, though already high, rose – it was less okay for my students to not have a thesis statement in their paper when we had spent so much time (and there was an entire separate assignment for!) writing theses.
Overall, however, the quality of the papers improved. The median grade went from an 82 to an 88 and the vast majority of students included theses, relevant quotations and some level of close reading of these quotations.
I chose these three students because they received a variety of grades on the initial thesis papers (Nicole received a low grade, Anastasia received a middling grade and Nem received a high grade as compared to the majority of the class) and because, in all three of them, I saw great drive and willingness to respond to my interventions. Nicole, Anastasia and Nem worked incredibly hard over the course of the year and, as a result, their grades on the final thesis paper improved (as compared to that on the initial thesis paper) by, respectively, 10, 13 and 8 points.
Not all of my students grew as much as the three detailed in this inquiry project. A few students actually received lower grades on their thesis papers on The Things They Carried than they did on their thesis papers on The Great Gatsby. Part of this is because my expectations, though already high, rose – it was less okay for my students to not have a thesis statement in their paper when we had spent so much time (and there was an entire separate assignment for!) writing theses.
Overall, however, the quality of the papers improved. The median grade went from an 82 to an 88 and the vast majority of students included theses, relevant quotations and some level of close reading of these quotations.